Gnomuz

Hi all, I'd like to report an issue I have with my brand new APC UPS SMC1000IC (tower model) on my Unraid server. All that follows was first seen in beta30, and beta35 didn't change anything. I first updated the UPS to the latest firmware (v 04.1) and enabled ModBus communication protocol via the LCD display (it is disabled by default, even though the operation manual states the contrary, so beware ...) After setting up apcupsd accordingly (UPS cable USB, UPS type ModBus), I plugged the UPS in the server (USB-A to USB-A), and all information were properly populated, especially the nominal power and load percent. So far, it was plug and play, what a good surprise after the various posts I had read in the forum ! But, there's a but, as you may have guessed... After a reboot, all info were wrong, except for "runtime left" and status (Online/On battery): a fully charged battery was reported as 6% charged, no nominal power nor load percent, and many other tags were absent or totally out of range, including an output voltage of 400+ volts ! After many attempts stopping and starting the daemon, with the UPS plugged or unplugged, I finally reached a stable behaviour : - when the server boots with the UPS plugged in (USB), the daemon gets fanciful information, and the workaround is to unplug the UPS, stop/start the daemon, plug the UPS back, and everything is back to normal - when the server boots with the UPS unplugged, and I plug it after the boot process is over, communication with the UPS is established, and all information are correct at first sight. I have also tried to use NUT instead of the built-in apcupsd, but the problem is NUT doesn't seem to know of the ModBus protocol, it only manages communication with UPS in "basic" USB mode. And this UPS reports very little information in basic USB mode (just battery charge level and runtime left, no load percent, no nominal power, no voltages, ...). I get the same limited set of information with both apcupsd in USB mode and NUT. I agree these info (batt level and runtime left) are sufficient to manage a smooth shutdown in case of power outage, so I could run apcupsd with UPS type set to "USB" instead of "ModBus" (or NUT, which would be the same), as I have no issue at boot with this setup. But I also want to feed various UPS data to my Grafana dashboard (custom UUD 1.4 currently) through telegraf, so I don't see any other solution than apcupsd running with UPS type set to "ModBus" to capture what I want in the dashboard. So, I've been stuck on this problem for a while now, and my setup is still not operational in case of an unexpected power outage. As the reboot will be automatic when the power comes back, the daemon will get false information (no possible USB unplug/replug if I'm away or sleeping...). It will see the UPS Online with the correct Runtime left, but with a ridiculously low battery charge level (1 to 6% "captured" vs 90+% in reality during my tests). And the batt level remains stuck over time. As I have set the "Battery level to initiate shutdown" to 60%, when a second power outage will occur, even for a few seconds, the shut down will be immediately initiated, due to the false battery charge level. I haven't tested what happens next when the power comes back, but I think it may enter a loop of shutdowns/reboots each time a power outage occurs. That is obviously not a proper setup for a 24/7 server... I suspect the apcupsd dameon establishes the communication "a bit" too early on my setup, at a stage where the USB "stack" on the server is not totally ready (sorry for the improper words, I'm not an Unraid/Linux expert...) and thus the communication with the UPS is not initialized properly. To try and sort it out, I think that delaying the launch of the apcupsd daemon might be a solution, but I didn't find any setting or thread on this forum to do so. Another possible solution may be to fully reset the USB device through a script, but again I didn't find anything similar in the forum. Thanks in advance for your thoughts and guidance on this issue.